Snyder, Mitch

Mitch Snyder (1946–1990) was an American advocate for the rights of homeless folks. His career as an organizer began while he was serving time in prison following a 1970 arrest for auto theft. Snyder, along with Phillip and Daniel Berrigan, participated in hunger strikes to protest the treatment of prisoners in Vietnam. In 1973 Snyder joined the Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) in Washington, D.C., then an anti-war group. After the end of the Vietnam war, CCNV began to administer services to homeless Washingtonians, and Snyder began the work that ultimately made him famous. In addition to participating in hunger strikes, holding public funerals for homeless people, and organizing housing takeovers to protest municipal and federal housing policy, Snyder participated in numerous pranks and artistic hijinks. In one case, he and several of his colleagues dressed in business suits, infiltrated a National Conservative Caucus and dove into the world’s largest apple pie — intended by the NCC to symbolize a bigger piece of the pie for everyone — howling “It’s all for me!’”